One goal for the Bills offense is pretty straightforward. Wide receiver Cole Beasley knows what he’s describing may not be fully attainable, but he and his teammates are basing their mindset around it regardless.
“As an offense, you want to get to the point to where every time you step on the field, you're getting points,” Beasley said. “I mean, I know that's hard to do. But we come out there with the mentality that nobody's going to stop us and we're going to score. I think that confidence built some last year, and even the year before. But even more so this year.
“We don't hope it'll happen, we expect it to. So I think that's the difference.”
Buffalo’s offense put up 31.3 points per game last season, second only to the Packers. Now, this year’s Bills start their new campaign against the Steelers, who allowed 19.5 points per game, third-best in the league. Both rosters have changed, as have strategies and schemes, but Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll still thinks the deep tradition of defense in Pittsburgh can complicate his job this week.
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“They’ve got a great style of defense,” Daboll said Wednesday of the Steelers. “Their coordinator has been there a long time. The guys know what they're doing. They're a really formidable opponent, one of the best in the league, so we got a big challenge ahead of us.”
So for the Bills to put up points the way Beasley intends, they have to move fast, as the Steelers' defense looks to pressure quarterback Josh Allen.
“That's really their calling card. They get to the quarterback, that's what they do,” Beasley said. “They led the league in a lot of those categories. It's just my job to be decisive and get open fast for Josh, and just make sure that he knows exactly what I'm doing with my body language. So just being in the right spots for him and getting there quick.”
Entering his third year with the Bills, Beasley says that his connection with Allen is not only quicker than ever, but also that Allen is “getting the ball quicker to me than any quarterback that I've been with.” That connection was good for a career-high 967 receiving yards and 82 catches for Beasley last season.
Part of that is the trust that comes with repetition, something Allen and wide receiver Stefon Diggs got down quickly. With less time to build a rapport, Diggs benefited from the Bills' style of offense.Â
“We were in a predominantly throwing offense, and for a receiver, you want to be in that,” Diggs said Tuesday. “That’s what any receiver’s dream is. You want to throw the ball, you want to catch the ball.”
It’s a dream that can bring a caveat with a wide receiver room like the Bills have: With so many options, an individual role can shrink. Beasley thinks that helps the offense as a whole, even if there may be some adjusting on a player-by-player basis.
“Maybe as a player, it may be a little harder just because you have so many dudes, which is a good problem to have,” Beasley said. “You've got so many dudes who could do so many different things with the ball. There's a lot of targets for Josh to throw to. So the rhythm as an offense, I feel like we should be all right.”
